Five hundred years and more ago,
\nThird Edward ruled us then,
\nFrom Fowey near fifty ships set sail,
\nWith nigh eight hundred men :
\nNo other Port on England’s coast
\nAn equal force could bring ;
\nFor Calais when they weigh’d, they form’d
\nThe Vanguard of the King.<\/p>\n
And when of Henries reign’d the Sixth,
\nThe ships of Fowey went forth
\nTo every sea, and every shore,
\nEast, West, and South, and North ;
\nAnd the Bay was like a forest
\nFor tall and stately masts,
\nAnd flags of many countries
\nCame with the veering blasts.<\/p>\n
The Fowey men grew so haughty,
\nThey would no bonnet veil ;
\nBut the folk of Rye and Winchelsea
\nWould make them dip the sail.
\nAnd on a day, to settle it,
\nThey fought both man and boy ;
\nAnd from that time those Cornish lads
\nWere called Gallants of Fowey.<\/p>\n
Still more they fell to merchandise,
\nAnd prouder still did grow :
\nTheir cruisers harassed all the coast
\nFrom Cherbourg to Bordeaux.
\nBut one dark night, when scatter’d far
\nTheir ships on Ocean wide,
\nA sound as from a cloud of sails
\nCame with the flowing tide.<\/p>\n
The Lady of Treffry remain’d
\nIn her large mansion lone ;
\nHer husband to the distant chase
\nWith horse and hounds had gone.
\nThe watch-dogs bark’d ; then shouts – then shrieks
\nRose from the sleeping town ;
\nThe vengeful French, like unloosed fiends,
\nWent ranging up and down.<\/p>\n
Here torches flash’d, there sledges crash’d,
\nSuch was their devilish game ;
\nAnd soon from many a house-top
\nBurst out the crimson flame.
\nAs in broad day men saw the bay,
\nThe ships, the shores, the towers ;
\nThen blinding clouds of smoke came down,
\nAnd red flakes fell in showers.<\/p>\n
But she was there, that Lady,
\nTo play no woman’s part ;
\nThough the great sufferings of her town
\nHad pierced her gentle heart :
\nAnd Fowey men, like a wall of steel,
\nThough few, about her stood ;
\nWhile some, to cut the ships adrift,
\nCrept out upon the flood.<\/p>\n
And on the wharves, and in the streets,
\nWas heard the awful clang
\nOf swords and weapons strange ; with fists
\nSome on the Frenchmen sprang ;
\nSome met them with a Cornish grip
\nThey never more forgot ;
\nAnd many found the Cornish hug
\nMuch rougher than they thought.<\/p>\n
But other were the scenes and sounds
\nOf that unhappy night,
\nWhen, like a flock of bleating lambs,
\nBy the burning roof-trees’ light,
\nMothers their wailing children led
\nThrough wood and shelter’d lane,
\nAnd up the winding moorland paths
\nWhich to this day remain.<\/p>\n
Still calm look’d forth the Lady
\nFrom her embattled wall ;
\nHer presence was a power, her voice
\nThrill’d like a trumpet’s call.
\nMeanwhile the bells kept tolling,
\nTo rouse the country round ;
\nAnd spires and turrets far away
\nSent on the warning sound.<\/p>\n
And long before the daylight
\nFires lit the lofty peaks ;
\nAnd men were moving in the vales,
\nAnd stirring in the creeks.
\nSmall need – so brave that Lady proved,
\nThe Fowey gallants so true,
\nThat at cock-crow, like baffled wolves,
\nThe Frenchmen all withdrew.<\/p>\n
Whether a panic seized them,
\nI will not pause to learn ;
\nThey had done enough of mischief,
\nAnd might perhaps return.
\nBut, when they went to find their ships,
\nThe Fowey folk laugh’d outright ;
\nFor some were scuttled, some aground,
\nSome drifting out of sight.<\/p>\n
Next morning with his Posse
\nThe Sheriff came at dawn ;
\nThe flames still roar’d, the French on board
\nThe ships they saved had gone :
\nThree cheers, then, for the Fowey gallants !
\nFor the Lady three times three !
\nAnd, if the French should come again,
\nMay our wives as fearless be !<\/p>\n
Changed is the world, much changed since then,
\nYet will they come once more ?
\nWho knows – or cares – or fears ? who doubts
\nWe’ll serve them as before ?
\nGrace Darling died but yesterday,
\nAnd others of her race
\nMay yet be found to emulate
\nThat Lady brave of Place.<\/p>\n
From The Voyage of Arundel and Other Rhymes From Cornwall <\/em>(1884)<\/p>\n *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *<\/p>\n ‘The Lady of Place’ commemorates Dame Elizabeth Treffry, who is said to have rallied the men of Fowey to defeat an attack by the French in about 1457 (an attack which may have been a retaliation for raids on the French coast by Cornish seamen).<\/p>\n “The French-men diverse tymes assailid this Town, and last most notably about Henry the vj. tyme: when the wife of Thomas Treury the 2. with her Men repellid the French out of her House in her Housebandes Absence. Wherapon Thomas Treury buildid a right fair and stronge embatelid Towr in his House: and embateling al the Waulles of the House in a maner made it a Castelle: and onto this Day it is the Glorie of the Town Building in Faweye.”<\/em><\/p>\n